Taiwan says shut out of U.N. climate talks due to China pressure

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan said its environment minister has been prevented from attending an annual U.N. climate meeting even with credentials as a non-governmental participant due to pressure from China.

It represents the latest case of self-ruled Taiwan not being able to take part in an international event because of opposition from China, which objects to the island it claims under its "one-China" stand being accorded anything akin to the status of an independent state.

Environmental protection agency minister Lee Ying-yuan had hoped to attend a U.N. climate change meeting in Bonn, Germany, the island's foreign ministry said in a statement late on Monday.

"Due to China's interventions, environmental protection minister Lee was unable to enter the UNFCCC meeting," it said, referring to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Relations between Beijing and Taipei have nosedived since Tsai Ing-wen was elected the island's president last year. China believes she wants formal independence for Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan's democracy and security.

Taiwan's foreign ministry spokesman, Andrew H.C. Lee, told a news conference in Taipei the president believed climate change was an important issue and the island would endeavor to take part in international meetings to address it.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China's position was very clear.

"On the matter of Taiwan participating in international events, China's position is very clear; that is, it must comply with the One China principle," Geng told reporters, without elaborating.

Organizers of the event in Bonn where were not immediately available for comment.

Since 2009, when Taiwan announced its intention to participate in U.N. climate change meetings, the government has helped officials get credentials for talks as non-governmental observers to attend the international meeting. Taiwan participated last year with a lower-level delegation.

Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, having lost the seat it held in China's name in 1971 when the Communist government in Beijing assumed the position.

Under the previous Taiwan administration of the China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou, Beijing let Taiwan attend some U.N.-related events, including getting observer access at the annual U.N. World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva.

This year, Taiwan was shut out of the health assembly, which the island also said was due to China's coercion and threats.

China has previously blamed Taiwan for its exclusion from international events, saying it is due to Taipei's refusal to accept the "one China" principle.

Nationalist forces, defeated by the Communists, fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

President Xi Jinping warned Tuesday that no one can "dictate" China's economic development path as the Communist Party marked 40 years of its historic "reform and opening up" policy amid a stern challenge from the United States. In a speech at the grandiose Great Hall of the People, Xi vowed to press ahead with economic reforms but made clear that Beijing will not deviate from its one-party system or take orders from any other country. "The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics," he said.

President Xi Jinping vowed Tuesday to push ahead with China's "reform and opening up" but warned that no one can "dictate" what it does, as the Communist Party celebrated the policy's 40th anniversary. While he pledged to press forward with the economic reforms initiated under late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in December 1978, Xi indicated that there would be no change to the one-party system. "The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics," he said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China's reforms and opening up are not easy, and could face unimaginable storms. Xi made the comments in a speech at Beijing's Great Hall of the People to mark 40 years of China's reforms and opening up. (Reporting by Kevin Yao; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

The plans are the clearest indication yet of Japan's ambition to become a regional power as a military build-up by China and a resurgent Russia puts pressure on its U.S. ally. "The United States remains the world's most powerful nation, but national rivalries are surfacing and we recognize the importance of the strategic competition with both China and Russia as they challenge the regional order," said a 10-year defense program outline approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government on Tuesday. The United States, followed by China, North Korea and Russia, are the countries that most influenced Japan's latest military thinking, the paper said.

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